NationStates Jolt Archive

There are different names for wind all over the world. Different places have different types of winds. When I lived in SoCal, we had the Santa Anas and now in Colorado, we have the Chinook winds.

The Santa Anas (also called the Devil Winds by the early Spaniards) are very dry and, usually, hot. The combination of a Santa Ana and a brushfire is deadly.

The Chinooks can raise the temperature in a given area from below zero to in the high 40s in a matter of a few hours. Sometimes they're called "snow eaters" because they can dissipate a foot or more of snow in that short time.

Tell me about the wind where you live.

My current location doesn't really have a pet name for the 風 (kaze, wind), but ours comes from being funneled right out of the mouth of a river canyon and it can get very strong. The only winds that the Japanese normally have an issue with are the taifun (typhoon) and THOSE are nothing to sneeze at.

Back at home though, oh yes. We have the Washoe Zephyr, which plays merry hell with life in Carson City every day during the summer. I'd tell you about the wind, but, well, when a master has already done so, why add to perfection:

This was all we saw that day, for it was two o'clock, now, and according to custom the daily "Washoe Zephyr" set in; a soaring dust-drift about the size of the United States set up edgewise came with it, and the capital of Nevada Territory disappeared from view. Still, there were sights to be seen which were not wholly uninteresting to newcomers; for the vast dust-cloud was thickly freckled with things strange to the upper air - things living and dead, that flitted hither and thither, going and coming, appearing and disappearing among the rolling billows of dust - hats, chickens, and parasols sailing in the remote heavens; blankets, tin signs, sage-brush, and shingles a shade lower; door-mats and buffalo-robes lower still; shovels and coal-scuttles on the next grade; glass doors, cats, and little children on the next; disrupted lumber yards, light buggies, and wheelbarrows on the next; and down only thirty or forty feet above ground was a scurrying storm of emigrating roofs and vacant lots.

It was something to see that much. I could have seen more, if I could have kept the dust out of my eyes.

But, seriously, a Washoe wind is by no means a trifling matter. It blows flimsy houses down, lifts shingle roofs occasionally, rolls up tin ones like sheet music, now and then blows a stage-coach over and spills the passengers; and tradition says the reason there are so many bald people there is, that the wind blows the hair off their heads while they are looking skyward after their hats. Carson streets seldom look inactive on summer afternoons, because there are so many citizens skipping around their escaping hats, like chambermaids trying to head off a spider.

The "Washoe Zephyr" (Washoe is a pet nickname for Nevada) is a peculiarly Scriptural wind, in that no man knoweth "whence it cometh." That is to say, where it originates. It comes right over the mountains from the West, but when one crosses the ridge he does not find any of it on the other side! It probably is manufactured on the mountaintop for the occasion, and starts from there. It is a pretty regular wind, in the summer-time. Its office-hours are from two in the afternoon till two the next morning; and anybody venturing abroad during those twelve hours needs to allow for the wind or he will bring up a mile or two to leeward of the point he is aiming at. And yet the first complaint a Washoe visitor to San Francisco makes, is that the sea-winds blow so, there! There is a good deal of human nature in that.
- Roughing It
http://www.twainquotes.com/Zephyr.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_Zephyr

*cue fart jokes*

The wind comes up from the South in the Summer then down from the North in the Winter, of no real relevance unless you're a surfer, alas the best surfing spots face North, which means Winter is best for surfing, though also coldest.

...and yes, we get typhoons regularly between about end April through to end August, we get the day off work if it's force 9, we had loads last year, couple of direct hits too.

EDIT: HK for anyone who cares.

(insert political 'hot air' joke here)

Here, in the winter, the wind can be razor-edged like a knife. It'll cut right through whatever it is you're wearing and freeze your bones. In the summer, though, you get nice cool winds, and not the hot baking ones I've seen elsewhere.

Of course, having seen the khamsin, I really shouldn't complain about the wind here.

We call it wind.

In West Europe, we call a northern cold wind in the winter a pole wind.

Obvious I guess.

In the south of France and and the north west of Italy they have the Mistral.

We call it wind.
They call the wind Maria...

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What?

Wind!! where is my wind!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVVKvZoPaD8

Tell me about the wind where you live.
Smells of fish oil or chocolate, depending on which way it's coming, and generally brings acid rain with it. Quite nippy in autumn and presumably in spring and summer too (haven't been here that long), warms you up a bit sometimes in winter.

In Dutch, like in most languages, I guess, there are dozens of names for wind, depending on the direction, speed, gustyness, presence of precipitation, season, etc. enz. usw.

Oh, and can't resist: :D
Met a miller on the back of a cow
He was looking for the wind, but he didn't know how
I said "follow the cloud that looks like a sheep"
In the Dutch mountains

We have two standouts here, but no specific names for either.

There's the cold wind in the winter, a southerly that blows straight from the Antartic, with no land masses in between.

Then there's the hot northerly in the summer. I blows down from the north, across the hot, dry interior of Australia. It's so hot & devoid of moisture, it leaves you parched and dries out your nose & mouth in seconds. It's the wind that causes all the bushfire problems.

we have blue northerners (well not here but farther north where i am from in Texas). The air is so cold and dense you can see them coming the sky to the north looks dark blue. you can go form 80 to 40 in a matter of minutes. great way to freeze your ass off in autumn as you will be in shorts sweating then suddenly it will be cold as hell.

The wind comes from west to east where I live all year long, sometimes from the northwest, sometimes from the southwest, but always always always westish. We don't have a particular name for it but during the winter we get gales up to 60 miles an hour that knock down power lines and cause 12 foot high snow drifts; during the summer is just a cool hint of a breeze.

The Chinooks can raise the temperature in a given area from below zero to in the high 40s in a matter of a few hours. Sometimes they're called "snow eaters" because they can dissipate a foot or more of snow in that short time.


Here in the Po Valley (northern Italy) we have a chinook-type wind, too. We call it "Favonio" or more frequently "Föhn" (german version of Favonio). It is a dry, hot wind blowing southwards from the Alps when there is heavy rain on the northern side of the range.

More local winds:
"Tramontana" ("tra le montagne": literally "between the mountains") is a cold, damp wind blowing from N.
"Libeccio" (from "Libia", that is Lybia) is a hot damp wind blowing from SW; it is usually associated with sea storms over the Tyrrenian and Ligurian Sea. The libeccio is also called "africo" or "garbino".
"Bora" (from Boreas, but also might be linked to russian "buran") is a strong cold wind blowing from NE in northeastern Italy. In the city of Trieste, where it's quite frequent, it often reaches bursts of speed above 120 km/h.
"Levante" (literally "Rising", that is coming from the sunrise) in the Po valley is a cold wind blowing from E, usually associated with the Siberian anticyclone; it is the strongest wind over the Po valley, and can occasionally reach, expecially in early spring, bursts of speed around 130 km/h. Over the Adriatic it's called the Grecale, and blows from NE; the "Levante" eastern wind over the Adriatic is a lot less intense.
"Scirocco" (from Syria) is a hot dry wind blowing coming from the Sahara, and it's full of sand. It usually causes major heatwaves. (A term for crazed people here is "sciroccato", that is hit by scirocco). It can reach 100 km/h.
"Maestrale" (known in France as "Mistral") is a strong cold wind blowing from NW, generally associated to depressions over the North Atlantic.

"I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older"

We call wind "viento". We have the levante (rising wind), the boreal (from Boreas) and the mediterráneo (Mediterranean). My mum likes to mention the borrasca winds a lot (storm winds) when referring to problems on the horizon.:tongue:

My mum likes to mention the borrasca winds a lot (storm winds) when referring to problems on the horizon.:tongue:

Same here in Italy. Burrasca describes a storm at sea (a gale-force storm), and is also used in locutions like "c'è burrasca in Parlamento".

Same here in Italy. Burrasca describes a storm at sea (a gale-force storm), and is also used in locutions like "c'è burrasca in Parlamento".

We also use 'barrunto'. I like barrunto more than borrasca. It adds some sort of emphasis to things.:tongue:

Tell me about the wind where you live.We call it annoying.

It's called the wind, except when it gets cold, then we call it a northerner.

We also use 'barrunto'. I like barrunto more than borrasca. It adds some sort of emphasis to things.:tongue:

Barrunto... sounds like the italian barrito (the elephant's call). Mhh... elephants raging in the Camera dei Deputati...


Oi. I forgot: in italian, the general name for wind is "vento" (il vento).

Barrunto... sounds like the italian barrito (the elephant's call). Mhh... elephants raging in the Camera dei Deputati...

Heh, I can just imagine that too.:eek2:

Oi. I forgot: in italian, the general name for wind is "vento" (il vento).

Quite similar to the Spanish 'el viento' and the French 'le vent'.

Heh, I can just imagine that too.:eek2:

Quite similar to the Spanish 'el viento' and the French 'le vent'.

Latin: Ventus
Romanian: Vânt
Emilian: Vant
Asturian: Vientu
French, Catalan, Occitan, Normandic, Lombard, Piedmontese: Vent
Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Venetian: Vento
Spanish: Viento
Sicilian: Ventu
Walloon: Vint

German, English, Nederlandse, Afrikaans: Wind
Icelandic: Vindur
Danish, Norse, Swedish: Vind
Niedersächsisch: Wiend

Russian: Ветер (Vyeter)
Bulgarian: Вятър (Vyatr)
Macedonian, Serb/Croat/Bosnian: Ветар/Vjetar
Czech: Vítr
Slovak: Veter
Slovenian: Vietor
Ukrainian: Вітер (Viter)
Polish: Wiatr

Latvian: Vējš
Lithuanian: Vėjas

I'd say that the word for "wind" is quite almost the same through most of the Indo-European languages, with the notable exceptions of Albanian ("Era") and Greek ("Άνεμος"). I don't know about Hindi, though.

Latin: Ventus
Romanian: Vânt
Asturian: Vientu
French, Catalan, Occitan, Normandic, Lombard, Piedmontese: Vent
Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Venetian: Vento
Spanish: Viento
Sicilian: Ventu
Walloon: Vint

German, English, Nederlandse, Afrikaans: Wind
Icelandic: Vindur
Danish, Norse, Swedish: Vind
Niedersächsisch: Wiend

Russian: Ветер (Vyeter)
Bulgarian: Вятър (Vyatr)
Macedonian, Serb/Croat/Bosnian: Ветар/Vjetar
Czech: Vítr
Slovak: Veter
Slovenian: Vietor
Ukrainian: Вітер (Viter)
Polish: Wiatr

Latvian: Vējš
Lithuanian: Vėjas

I'd say that the word for "wind" is quite almost the same through most of the Indo-European languages, with the notable exceptions of Albanian ("Era") and Greek ("Άνεμος"). I don't know about Hindi, though.

I wonder what's the name for wind in Chinese.

I wonder what's the name for wind in Chinese.

Dunno. I can't read Chinese :(

Dunno. I can't read Chinese :(

Neither can I, but there should be a Romanized way of writing it.:tongue:

I wonder what's the name for wind in Chinese.

Feng

Feng

Hm... if I sound that, it kind of reminds me of the sound of wind.

Feng

I thought it was for "air", like in "feng-shui". Damn, Chinese is too difficult. :(

I thought it was for "air", like in "feng-shui". Damn, Chinese is too difficult. :(

It is. But I guess that's because it's a tonal language.

Here in Eastern Canada we pretty much get wind from every direction most of the time. There are Nor'Easters, Sou'Westers, and everything in between.

I personally refer to tornadoes as "Air Man's Revenge".

We have been known to refer to it as breeze, wind, gale, and (if sufficiently powerful) hurricane. Some people also speak of nor'easters and other such directional terms. If anyone uses a more esoteric term, I'll probably ask for a clarification.

I thought it was for "air", like in "feng-shui". Damn, Chinese is too difficult. :(

I think it is both

I don't know if there are any special names for the wind where I am now, but when I was in Sacramento there was the delta breeze. It was cooler air from the river delta, and helped the weather be bearable on really hot days.

The wind in the Midwest sucks. Its always so bitterly cold in the winter. We have a funny joke around these parts (northwestern illinois, right now) that goes like this: Why is it always so windy in Illinois? Because Iowa blows, and Indiana sucks. :)

Meh, wind is just wind here. Although during the Thunderstorm season, when I'm flying I have to watch out for Microburst, especially right before landing and right after take off. Because if you get a microburst during those time, you are basically fucked.